


A Boy in Her Room

by my_mad_fatuation



Series: A Boy In Her Room [1]
Category: My Mad Fat Diary
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-11
Updated: 2016-03-11
Packaged: 2018-07-14 06:53:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7158281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/my_mad_fatuation/pseuds/my_mad_fatuation
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s Fall semester 2016. Rae is just starting university but finds that she’s accidentally been roomed with a boy, and it will take a few days to get things sorted out. Hijinks ensue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Boy in Her Room

**Author's Note:**

> This would not happen, at least not at my university. If a girl got placed in a room with a guy by mistake, Student Housing would probably move the guy into one of the lounges until they could get one of them in a proper room. They wouldn’t put a girl in such a potentially dangerous or triggering situation. But, you know, it’s just a silly story.

There was a boy in her room.

Rae had just said goodbye to her mum at the car and was bringing up the last of her baskets of stuff when she stopped in the doorway of her dorm room.

“Are you lost?” the boy said, giving her a once-over.

“This is my room,” she said uncertainly. All her stuff was already piled on one of the beds and she had double-checked before she started moving in—this was definitely her room.

“No, this is my room,” he replied.

“You’re not…Finn, are you?” She realized now that “Finn” was not some cute and quirky girl’s name but was, in fact, this boy’s name.

“Are you…Raymond?”

“No…”

“I was told my roommate was going to be Ray.”

“I am Rae, as in Rachel.”

“Oh. Shit.”

“Yeah.” Rae set her basket down on the bed with the rest of her stuff because it was starting to get heavy. “So what are we supposed to do now?”

“Whaddaya mean?” he asked, folding his arms.

“Well, we can’t both stay here. It’s against the rules.” Plus, it just made her uncomfortable.

“Fine, then you call Student Housing and deal with it. I’m not going anywhere.”

She scowled at him. “Fine, I will.”

She stormed off down the hall until she found the lounge where she could make a call in private. She did not, however, call Student Housing but instead called her mum and started crying. Her mum then called Student Housing and gave them an earful for doing this to her poor baby.

“Rae, honey,” she said when she called Rae back. “They said that all the residence halls are at capacity and there’s nowhere to move you yet, but they’re working on it and should have something for you in a few days. Can you hold out until then?”

Rae was going to have to share a room with a boy for a few days? She’d never shared a room with a boy before. (There were a lot of things she hadn’t done with a boy before.)

Her mum went on to rant about Student Housing and how they’re all incompetent before Rae decided she’d had enough and told her she needed to go.

She got back to her room and, much to her dismay, Finn was still there unpacking his things.

“So?” he said to her expectantly.

“So, what?”

“So, are you moving to a different room or what?”

“Not yet,” she said as she walked towards her bed. “They said they’re working on it but it’ll be a few days.”

“Oh. That sucks.”

“Yeah, it does.”

She thought about whether or not she should start unpacking her things since she wasn’t going to be there very long. Then again, maybe they would make Finn move to a different room instead. She had no way of knowing, so she decided to unpack since it wasn’t that much stuff anyway.

She hung a few of her clothes in her closet but shoved most of them in the drawers under her bed. She plugged in her laptop at her desk and pinned her class schedule to the bulletin board above it.

“Hey, we’re in the same class,” Finn said, reading over her shoulder. “Music in Popular Culture.”

“Goodie,” she said without enthusiasm.

“Have you got a problem with me or summat?”

“No,” she muttered. She didn’t even look at him; she just kept unpacking her notebooks and desk supplies.

“Well, me and the lads across the hall were gonna go grab some lunch, if you wanted to come.”

She shook her head tightly. The thought of going to have lunch with a bunch of guys she didn’t know just started to bring up those food issues of hers that she had spent years trying to overcome.

“Alright, well, see ya later, yeah?” He grabbed his leather jacket that he’d left hanging on the back of his closet door and headed out.

She took this time alone to finish unpacking stuff like her undergarments, which she had purposefully left in her suitcase until this point. She hadn’t even thought about how she was supposed to get changed everyday—luckily her closet seemed big enough that she could change in there, although it would be a little cramped.

When she had unpacked all of her things—again, there wasn’t a lot—she sat on her bed, bored and hungry. She probably should have gone to get lunch with those guys because she didn’t even know where the closest dining hall was or how to get there. And as much as she hated eating with people, she hated eating alone in a public place way more.

She’d really been hoping for a female roommate—well, not even hoping for one, just _expecting_ one—so they could become friends and do stuff like find the dining hall together. It’s not like she was looking for someone to plait her hair or anything, she just wanted someone to navigate all these first-time experiences with her.

Whatever. She wasn’t going to let this keep her from doing the things she needed to do, like eating lunch or going to buy her textbooks. She pulled out her phone and looked up a map of the campus so she could find the nearest dining hall, then grabbed her own jacket and walked out with purpose.

She got to the dining hall, picked out her food, and paid for it with her student ID card, before looking for a table. There weren’t any empties so she was going to have to share with strangers. She could feel her stomach revolting at the thought.

She searched for a table of people who looked like they wouldn’t want to talk to her, but then thought she heard her name coming from behind her. She turned to see Finn waving her over.

“Rae! Come on, sit with us,” he said from a couple tables away.

She walked over cautiously. He was sitting with two other boys who she had seen in the hallway while she was moving in. He introduced everyone—the boys were Chop and Archie, she learned—and she took a seat with them.

“So, yeah,” he said to the others, “there must have been some sort of mix-up because they stuck me and Rae together. Maybe they saw the name Rae and thought she was a bloke.”

Everyone but Rae laughed.

“Hey, I’m sorry,” he added. “That’s not funny.”

“It’s fine,” she said, stabbing her fork into her plate of food and swirling it around. “I thought Finn was a girl’s name, so…”

Chop and Archie laughed at that one as well.

“What kind name is that for a girl?” Finn asked.

“I dunno,” said Rae. “I thought it was cute.”

“You think my name is cute?” He seemed far too delighted.

“For a girl,” she clarified.

The other boys snickered again.

“Speaking of girls,” Chop said to Finn, “have you seen the girls in the room next to ya?” He had an impressed look on his face.

“I haven’t talked to them yet,” Finn said.

“Who said anything about talking to ‘em?” Chop laughed.

Rae just scowled at him.

“Soz,” he said. “I were only joking.”

She rolled her eyes. This was one thing she hated about hanging out with guys; they always felt comfortable talking about “hot” girls in front of her because she wasn’t one.

“I need to go pick up my textbooks,” she said as she stood up.

“You’ve hardly eaten anything,” said Finn.

“Yeah, I’m not hungry.” She went and scraped her food into the bin and put her tray on the conveyer belt. (After spending a minute trying to figure out where the trays went until she saw someone else do it, of course.)

She pulled out her phone again and found the bookstore on the map where she went to buy her textbooks. They were bloody expensive!

As she was about to unlock the door when she got back to her room, with an armload of books, the two girls from the next room popped out to say hi. They introduced themselves as Chloe and Izzy.

“Is it true you’ve been put in a room with that guy, Finn?” asked Izzy.

“Yeah,” said Rae.

“Oh my god,” said Chloe. “He is well fit.”

Rae shrugged. “Sure…”

“I wonder if he has a girlfriend. He probably does.” Chloe looked at Rae for a moment. “Could you find out if he does and let me know?”

“How would I find that out?”

“Ask him.”

“Why can’t you ask him?”

“Because then he’d think I was into him. If you ask it’ll just seem like you’re trying to get to know your roommate.”

Rae sighed. She didn’t really care. “Yeah, I’ll see what I can do.” She managed to get the door unlocked and was relieved to finally set her books down on her desk.

She spent the afternoon in bed on her laptop, catching up on Tumblr and letting her online friends know what was going on.

“That awkward moment when you realize you’ve been roomed with a boy by mistake,” she posted.

A mutual reblogged a minute later adding, “But is he cute?”

“Irrelevant,” Rae responded.

“That means yes.”

It was a couple of hours before Finn showed up again.

“How’s it going?” he said when he walked in. It looked like he’d been to the bookstore as well.

“Fine,” Rae grumbled.

He set his books on his desk as well and took a seat on his bed. “Whatcha lookin’ at?” He nodded towards her computer in her lap.

“Just online stuff.”

“Porn?”

She turned to look at him in disbelief. “No!”

He looked amused, which made it hard for Rae not to smile. (But she managed it.)

“Can I ask you something?” she said after a minute of him just sitting there watching her.

“Yeah.”

“Do you… I mean, a friend of mine wanted to know if you…if you had a girlfriend?” She scrunched her face when she realized how awkwardly that came out.

“Tell your _friend_ ,” he said with a smile, “that no, I don’t have a girlfriend.”

“Okay. I think she’ll be glad to hear it.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Will she?”

“Oh, shit, you’re not gay, are you?” she asked quickly.

“I do like girls, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Good. For her, I mean. I don’t care what you do.” Ugh, why was she so bad at talking to humans?

She looked back at her computer and tried to forget that he was still watching her.

“I hear the Engineering department is giving out free pizza to Engineering students,” he said.

“I’m not an Engineering student,” Rae replied.

“Yeah, but we could just go over there, act like pricks, and get free pizza.”

“Tempting,” she said sarcastically.

“Well, suit yourself,” he said. He grabbed his jacket again and left.

Rae exhaled like she’d been holding her breath the entire time he was there.

At dinnertime she went with Chloe and Izzy to the dining hall to get some food. Chloe was pleased to hear that Finn didn’t have a girlfriend.

After dinner, everyone in their residence hall gathered in the common room in the basement for some get-to-know-you activities. Each person was teamed up with his or her roommate for quiz games and three-legged races and crap like that.

The three-legged race was definitely the worst part for Rae, because she and Finn were so uncoordinated that they tripped and fell, and everyone laughed because fat girls falling is funny, apparently.

He apologized to her when they got back to their room. “I didn’t mean to trip ya,” he said.

“It’s not your fault,” she said. “We just both suck at that.”

“A few of us are going ‘round back to smoke, if you want to join us.”

She picked up her laptop. “I don’t smoke.”

“I’m not talking about regular cigarettes, here,” he said, taking a step closer so he could lower his voice.

“I know,” she said as she sat on her bed. “Not interested.”

He shrugged. “Laters, then.”

He left and once again Rae was alone in the room. She checked all her social media and read a couple of fanfics—she was really into _Star Wars_ fics at the moment, and she found it amusing that Rey/Finn was her favourite (along with Finn/Poe) considering her and her roommate’s names.

It was barely eleven and she was already getting tired. It had been a bit of an exhausting day, what with the drive out and the roommate issue and the group activities—she felt justified in her tiredness, yet didn’t want to be asleep when Finn got back because she’d feel like a loser. Then again, she thought, she was more likely to fall asleep if no one was in the room.

She pulled out her pyjamas from the drawer and got into the closet to change in case Finn walked back in. She left her bra on as well because she wasn’t about to have her tits flopping about when there was a guy in the room. (This was also why she wanted a female roommate.)

She turned the light off and got into bed, though it took her a while to get to sleep. She was probably only half-asleep by the time Finn returned.

She heard the key in the lock though it took him a few tries to get it in properly. She could also hear chatter outside the door. Probably “the lads.” Finn didn’t turn the light on when he came in, thankfully, but she did hear him bump into something and curse under his breath.

***

Rae awoke with the morning light pouring in through the window and noticed that Finn was still fast asleep. She used this opportunity to get out her clothes and change in the closet before he could see her in her pyjamas.

She went down the hall to the bathroom to brush her teeth and wash her face, but when she got back, he was awake as well, sitting up in bed on his tablet. She could see from the angle she was standing when she walked in that he was on Twitter.

“Morning,” he said when he saw her.

“Yeah, morning,” she replied, putting away her toothbrush.

“You sleep alright?”

“Fine, why?”

“You talk in your sleep.”

She turned to look at him. “What? I do not.”

“You do! You were counting, like a waltz. One, two, three. One, two, three.” He laughed.

“You’re making that up.”

“It’s true! Tonight I’ll record ya and show ya tomorrow.”

“Don’t you dare.”

“Only if you say you believe me.”

“Alright, fine, whatever.”

He tossed his tablet onto the bed, got up, and headed for the door. As she watched him leave, Rae thought two things: one, that she didn’t know how he could go out into the hall in just his pyjamas, and two, that his ass looked really good in those pyjamas. Wait, she couldn’t think that! That was weird!

“Get your stuff,” he said when he came back in. He headed straight for the drawers under his bed and started pulling out clothes. “A bunch of us are going to get breakfast. Let’s go.”

She watched for a minute as he started to take off his shirt right in front of her, but she looked away quickly. Was he just going to change right there in the middle of the room while she was sitting here?

Luckily, he took the rest of his clothes into his closet with him and finished getting dressed in there.

“Alright,” he said when he emerged. “Come on.”

The others were waiting for them outside their door and they all headed over to the dining hall together. She couldn’t really believe it, but it was as if she had already made some friends. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all.

***

Rae felt kind of lame for not joining in the “outdoor activities” with the others again that night, but she really had no interest in getting high and every interest in being well rested for her back-to-back classes at eight-thirty and nine-thirty the next morning.

She didn’t hear Finn come in that night, but she realized he must have because he was asleep in bed when she woke up.

She took her clothes, towel, and shower caddy to the bathroom. She hoped it was early enough in the morning that no one would see her walking there in her pyjamas. Thankfully, she didn’t run into anyone on her way.

When she got back to her room, Finn was still asleep, so she got her things together as quietly as she could before heading out to her class. She didn’t have time to stop for breakfast since she still had to locate her classroom.

It wasn’t until the end of her first class that she realized how pointless it had been and she could have just kept sleeping. The professor just went over the syllabus, which was online, and then sent the students out early. Rae used this opportunity to stop and get some breakfast, though.

She ran into Izzy and Chloe at the dining hall and they ate together before Rae’s next class. When she got there, however, she found that no one else was around, and no one showed up for a good ten minutes after class was supposed to start.

She had her class schedule on her phone so she took it out to double check she had the correct room number and everything, when she noticed an email notification. Apparently the professor had emailed the students that class was cancelled since her wife had just gone into labour.

Rae wished she had checked her phone sooner, it would have saved her from waiting around for so long, but it was nice to have some extra time to chill out before her afternoon class.

She got back to her room and found Finn sitting at his desk on his computer with his hand—

“Oh my god!”

“Jesus Fucking Christ, Rae!” He clamped both hands down on his lap and angled himself away from her. “I thought you were in class!”

“It got cancelled,” she said. “Were you just…?”

He managed to get himself zipped up and swiveled back to face her with his legs crossed and his arms folded. “Was I just what?”

“It’s ten in the morning, Finn!”

He frowned at her. “So, what, you only jerk off after lunch?”

“Oh my god!”

“Look, I just thought I’d get it done while you were out.” He closed his laptop when he realized the video was still playing.

“Why do you have to get it done at all?” She couldn’t even look at him.

“You’re joking, right?”

“I’m only here for a few days, couldn’t you just hold off?”

“Alright, I won’t do it, even while you’re not here and would never know anyway.”

“I’m just going to go to the library,” she said, exchanging some of the textbooks from her backpack. “I’ll see you in class, maybe.”

***

Finn did find Rae in their Music in Popular Culture class, and of course he sat next to her. She still couldn’t look at him. Luckily she hadn’t really _seen_ anything earlier, but she couldn’t stop picturing it. _It’s because you’re a pervert_ , she thought to herself.

Again, this was why she wanted a female roommate. At the very worst, if she walked in on her roommate doing that, she wouldn’t keep thinking about it all day. (Probably.)

This class was just another “let’s go over the syllabus and leave early” situation, so Rae and Finn walked back to their dorm together.

“Seems like it’ll be an interesting class,” he said as they walked.

“Yeah,” she replied half-heartedly.

“Are you actually going to talk to me ever again, or…?”

“Yeah.” Maybe when she could stop picturing him, leaning back in his chair, the look of desperate concentration on his face, the muscles in his arm flexing as he—no, maybe she wouldn’t be able to talk to him again.

They sat in the room silently, each of them on their respective computers, until dinnertime, when the others knocked on their door to go eat.

Rae couldn’t help but notice the way Chloe interacted with Finn all throughout dinner and wondered if she was the kind of girl he was thinking about when he was…

Well, of course she was. With her perfect, buoyant breasts, and her doe-eyes and her being, oh, well, not fat like Rae. Rae couldn’t help but feel a little jealous, though she wasn’t sure why. It’s not like she _fancied_ Finn or anything, she just didn’t like knowing that no guy would ever be fantasizing about her.

On the other hand, Finn was definitely the kind of guy that a girl would fantasize about. From his soulful eyes to his athletic build to his charmingly freckled face, Chloe was right; he was well fit.

The two of them belonged together, really. Rae didn’t belong with anyone. Certainly none of the guys she hung around with, anyway. They were all too good-looking. And she definitely couldn’t compete with Izzy and Chloe, who were both so tiny and perfect.

Rae was just looking forward to the rest of the evening, when Finn would be out smoking, and she could have the room to herself to relax and go to sleep. But that didn’t happen.

Instead, Finn spent the evening in the room, like they had done all afternoon. She found this annoying, because all she really wanted to do was read some fanfiction, but she was afraid to do it in front of other people in case she was reading smut and started blushing.

“The roommate is in tonight. What do I do?” she posted to Tumblr.

“Do a sex on him,” a friend added.

Rae tried not to laugh but she couldn’t.

“What’s so funny?” Finn asked, looking up from his computer.

“Oh, nothing,” she said. “Just Tumblr.”

“Oh, you’re one of _those_ people.”

“What people?”

“Tumblr people. Social justice fangirls who are into gay porn.”

“How the fuck would you even know what’s on Tumblr?”

“Because I’m on Tumblr,” he said with a cheeky smile.

“Shut up, no you’re not.”

“I mostly follow people with good music taste, but sometimes that other stuff pops up on my dash. I’m cool with it though, I was only teasin’ ya.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

“What’s your blog, I’ll follow you.”

“How do you even know I have good taste in music?”

“I’ve seen your t-shirts.”

She looked away shyly. “Yeah, well, you’re not following me.”

“Why not?”

“Because, I post personal stuff on there.”

“I feel like we are beyond personal boundaries now.”

“You may be, but I’m not.”

He laughed but didn’t press the issue further.

By midnight, Rae was starting to feel pretty worn out and just wanted to go to sleep. But how was she supposed to sleep with Finn sitting right there on the other side of the room, watching her? Okay, so he wasn’t watching her, but still, he was right there.

She stayed up a little longer until Finn realized that he’d better get to sleep since his class was in less than eight hours. She waited until he’d gotten changed in his closet—into those pyjamas that accentuated the curve of his butt, oh no, stop that—and went to bed before she got up and did the same.

It was weird falling asleep with someone else in the room. It was like it wasn’t her own room anymore, but she was at someone else’s house, at a sleepover or something. Only instead of girl talk they had awkward silence.

***

Finn accidentally woke Rae up in the morning, as he was getting ready to leave for his class.

“Sorry,” he said in a loud whisper when he noticed she was awake.

“It’s fine,” she mumbled, pulling the blankets up to her face.

“Are you having lunch with the gang later?” he asked. “Oh wait,”—he looked at her schedule on the wall—“you’re in class, never mind. See you at dinner, then.”

She felt a little weird about him looking at her schedule, though it’s not like he was going to stalk her or anything. But he also just assumed that any time she wasn’t in class she would be available to hang out with the gang, as if she had no other friends. (She didn’t have other friends, but that was beside the point.)

She was in class from eleven-thirty A.M. to two-thirty P.M., so she was starving by the time she got out. She grabbed a sandwich from the dining hall and took it back to her room. Finn wasn’t around when she got there so she figured it would be the perfect time for her to catch up on fanfics.

She had completely lost track of time and didn’t notice that it was already half five and Finn was back from his afternoon class. She slammed her laptop shut when she heard him come in.

“Um, okay,” he said, setting his bag on the floor. “What was that for?”

“Nothing.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “Were you looking at something dirty?”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” She was coming across way too defensive.

“Can I see?” He reached for her laptop but she covered it with her arms.

“No!”

“If it’s not dirty, then why can’t I see?” he asked as he leaned on her desk.

“I was just reading something.”

He gave her a knowing look. “Fanfiction?”

She could feel her face turning red. “So what? Some of it’s good.”

“So it is something dirty, then.”

“Fanfiction isn’t necessarily dirty,” she scoffed.

“Yeah, but the stuff you’re reading is, isn’t it? That’s why you’re so embarrassed.”

“I’m not embarrassed.”

“Look, it’s the same situation you caught me in yesterday, it’s no big deal.”

“It’s not the same! I wasn’t wanking!”

“Yet.”

“Oh my god, I can’t talk to you.”

He laughed. “I’m sorry, I was joking. Go ahead and read your filth, I’m not judging.”

She picked up her laptop and shoved in her backpack along with a random textbook—it probably had something in it she needed to read, anyway—and said, “I’m going to the library.”

“But we were all just about to go eat,” he said, frowning.

“I’m not hungry.”

“Rae, come on, don’t be ridiculous.” He followed her out of the room where they ran into a couple guys from down the hall.

“Oi, look at the happy couple,” one said to the other as they laughed and blocked Rae’s path.

“Get out of my way,” she growled.

“You know, at first we was jealous when we heard Finn had got a girl for a roommate,” said the other. “But now we’re not so much.”

Rae rolled her eyes and tried to push past them.

“What the _fuck_ is that supposed to mean?” Finn hollered.

“I’m sayin’ I wouldn’t wanna touch her with a ten-foot pole, mate,” the second guy replied.

“Yeah? Well she wouldn’t wanna touch a piece of shit like you with a twenty-foot pole!”

“Are you bangin’ ‘er?”

“That is none of your business.”

“Shit, man, he’s bangin’ ‘er!”

Rae could feel hot tears behind her eyes but refused to cry in front of this lot and give them the satisfaction.

Finn grabbed the second guy by front of his shirt and pinned him against the wall. “And what if I was, huh? That still doesn’t make her an object for you to judge based on how fuckable you think she is!”

“Calm down, mate, it were only a joke—“

“I am not”—he slammed him against the wall again—“your mate.” He let him go and turned to Rae. “Let’s go.”

She followed him down the stairs and out the building. “Where are we going?” she finally said when they were outside.

“I’m walking you to the library, so I can punch anyone in the face who talks to ya.”

“You don’t need to do that.”

He stopped and looked at her. “Shit, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—Like, I know you can handle yourself, right, just pricks like him really set me off and the thought that you have to deal with that…”

“It’s fine, I’m used to it.”

“Now that just makes me sad.”

She grimaced at him. “I don’t want ya to feel sorry for me.”

“I don’t, I feel sorry for those pathetic losers who need to make you feel like shit so they can feel better about themselves.” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “But I am sorry for implying that you and I are…you know. I realize that now they’re just gonna call you a slut or summat, and I should’ve thought of that before—“

“It’s fine, really.”

He tilted his head to the side and raised his eyebrows. “Will you come have dinner with the rest of us? The library will be there forever.”

She sighed. “Yeah, alright,” she said, and followed him to the dining hall where they met up with the others.

***

Rae ran into the two pricks from earlier when she got back from dinner, but she had her whole gang with her so they didn’t start any trouble. Though she did feel a little weird about going into her room with Finn—she wondered if those guys were going to tell people she and Finn were doing it. No one would believe them anyway, which was kind of a blessing. There was no way Finn Nelson was having sex with Rae Earl, not in this lifetime.

“What are you up to tonight?” Finn asked her once they were inside and the door was closed.

“I was just gonna go online, I dunno,” she replied self-consciously.

“D’you wanna watch something with me?”

“Like what?”

“I’ve been meaning to re-watch _The Mighty Boosh_ ,” he said, picking up his laptop. “Have you seen it?”

“Yeah, I love it.”

He sat on the end of his bed and opened his computer. Once he had the video ready to go, he set it on his desk facing the bed and scooted up to the top. “Come on, then.” He motioned with his head for her to come sit next to him.

She came over and sat on the edge of the bed with both feet on the floor.

“Get on properly,” he added as he tugged her by the arm.

She swung her legs up onto the bed and sat back against the headboard. The bed was very narrow, so the side of her hip touched his when they sat side by side. She kept her arms folded across her stomach so she wouldn’t accidentally bump him.

They laughed as they watched the show, and eventually Rae forgot to keep herself clenched and actually relaxed her arms. Yes, her arm did bump his at one point, but she just apologized and that was it. The world didn’t end.

She actually had a good time hanging out with Finn and started to think that maybe he wasn’t so bad. In fact, maybe—oh no—maybe she kind of, er, liked him.

This was bad. This was very bad. Rae couldn’t _like_ Finn. First of all, they were roommates, and that would just be awkward (even if it was only temporary until one of them moved out). Secondly, he was, well, hot and Rae was, erm, not. And thirdly, she knew Chloe fancied him, and she was starting to become friends with her and didn’t want to ruin that by fighting over the same guy.

So, that was it. It was settled. She did not like Finn Nelson. It was just not allowed.

The next couple of days went by without incident. The two of them hung out together, went to class together, ate meals together, along with the rest of the gang. It was fun. They were becoming friends, which Rae never thought would happen.

Friday she got a call from Student Housing, however, informing her that they had found a spot for her in her building and she could move there on Sunday. She thanked them for the news, though she was feeling torn about it.

On the one hand, she would still be more comfortable in general with a female roommate. On the other hand, she didn’t want this to mean that she would stop hanging out with Finn. What if he was only hanging out with her because he felt like he had to since they were roommates? What if she moved to another floor and just got dropped out of the gang?

“Glad to hear it,” he said when she told her they’d found her a placement.

“Yeah?”

“I could tell from the start you weren’t happy with this arrangement, so it’s a good thing.”

“I guess.”

“But you’re always welcome to come by for some _Mighty Boosh_ , don’t forget.”

She smiled. “I’ll keep that in mind.” Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

***

Since it was the weekend, Rae expected Finn to go out smoking on Saturday night, but instead he stayed in to watch more _Mighty Boosh_ with her. They were almost done the last series. It was nearly one by the time they finished.

“That’s it, I suppose,” she said.

“I guess we’ll just have to watch it again some time,” he replied.

“Or we could watch something else.”

“Blasphemy.”

“Then download their live show and we’ll watch that next time.”

He smiled. “I’m gonna miss this.”

“We can still hang out,” she said. “Can’t we?”

“Yeah, but you won’t be over here at one in the morning, will ya?”

“I guess not.”

He placed his hand on her knee and started stroking it with his thumb.

“Finn, what are you—“

“I like you, Rae.”

“You mean, like, we’re friends, yeah?” she said hesitantly.

“Yeah.”

“Well, then, I like you too.” She glanced over at him and he was staring at her so intently that she had to look away.

He suddenly leaned forward so his face was in front of hers, and before she knew what was happening, he kissed her.

Her instant reaction was to put her hand on his chest, as If to push him away, but then she grabbed his t-shirt and held on to keep him there. She was torn between “what the fuck?” and “fuck yes!”

The hand that was on her knee started roaming up her leg while his other hand was on the side of her face, stroking it affectionately. It was too much happening at once; she didn’t know what to do or what to think. All she knew was that her downstairs area was alive and kicking.

She let out a sound that was somewhere between a moan and a gasp for air, which startled them both.

“I—I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have…” he began, pulling away.

“Oh…”

He pushed himself forward so he could get around Rae and get off the bed. “I’m gonna go for a walk, I’ll see you in the morning, yeah?”

“Finn, it’s late,” she said, confused.

“I won’t be long,” he said. “Just, you should get some sleep. Big day tomorrow.”

“Yeah…”

“’Night, Rae.”

“’Night.”

***

Finn wasn’t there when Rae woke up the next morning. She got showered and dressed and went looking for the rest of the gang, most of whom were still sleeping. Archie was awake, though, so the two of them went to get breakfast at the dining hall.

“Have you seen Finn this morning?” she asked him.

“No, I haven’t seen him since yesterday,” he said.

“Only, last night at like one A.M. he said he was going for a walk and I haven’t seen him since. D’you think he’s okay?”

“Have you tried texting him?”

“I…I don’t have his number.” That was when Rae realized how weird it was that she didn’t have Finn’s number.

“I’ll do it,” Archie said.

They waited all of breakfast but there was still no response. So Rae was surprised to walk into her room and find him there, all sweaty in joggers, taking off his shirt.

“Oh!” she said, covering her eyes. “Sorry.”

“Did you go get breakfast already?” he asked, oblivious to the fact that his toplessness was making Rae uncomfortable.

“Yeah, I went with Archie,” she said. “Where were you?”

“I was just out for a run.”

She scrunched up her face in disgust. “Why?”

“It’s fun.” He shrugged. “Listen, I better go shower and then I’ll help you move your stuff, yeah?” He patted her on the arm like they were bros and grabbed his shower caddy and towel before heading out.

She had finished packing up her things—which she’d started packing the day before—by the time he was back.

She was moving two floors down, where a girl had moved out due to some sort of family emergency forcing her to leave school. It was sad, but good for Rae. (Sort of.) The gang all helped her move so it only took one-and-a-half trips to get everything down.

It was going to kind of suck not living right next to everyone, and she reminded them to make a point of coming to get her when they were going to do stuff together and not just forget about her.

“Of course we won’t forget about ya,” said Chop.

“Even if it’s something stupid, text me,” she said.

“Well, we’re going to get lunch now, if you wanna come.”

“I think I’d better get unpacked so it’s not a mess when my roommate gets back.” Rae only sort of knew her since they had met a couple of times, but she didn’t want to make a bad first impression as a roommate.

“Do you want me to stay and help?” Finn offered.

“No, it’s fine, you go ahead.”

She thought it would be weird for Finn to hang around because she didn’t really know where they stood after last night. She didn’t understand why he kissed her, first of all, or why he ran away afterwards. It must have been some sort of mistake.

The way he was treating her like a buddy this morning just proved that the kiss was some sort of momentary lapse in judgment. Maybe he’d hit himself in the head earlier, but now he was fine. In any case, she was best to just forget about it and pretend nothing happened, the way he did.

It wasn’t until she started unpacking her desk stuff that she realized she had left her class schedule up in her old room. It was too bad she’d already exchanged her keys or she just would have gone to get it. And she still didn’t have Finn’s number so she couldn’t just text him to bring it down after lunch.

Oh well, she’d get it eventually.

Her new roommate, Lois, returned shortly after Rae had finished unpacking. “All settled?” she asked.

“Yeah,” said Rae. “Though it’s a bit strange being on this side of the room. Everything’s flipped around for me.”

“Do you want to switch?”

“No, that’s alright,” she replied with a laugh. “I’ll get used to it.”

Lois went on to ask Rae about Archie and if he was seeing anybody—Rae didn’t think so, but she still didn’t know everything about everyone in her group. (Like why Finn kissed her, for example. Wait, she was pretending that didn’t happen.)

She asked if Lois wanted to get lunch with her, so they could get to know each other a little better, and they went to one of the other dining halls that Rae had never been to before. She was nervous about eating in a new place with a new person, but she got over it quickly.

When they got back to their room, Finn was waiting outside their door.

“What’re you doin’ here?” Rae asked him.

He pulled a folded piece of paper out of his pocket. “You left this,” he said, handing it over. “I assumed it wasn’t so I could stalk you.”

“I could have come back for it, you didn’t have to come all the way here and wait for me.”

“Yeah, well, I wanted to talk to ya.” He looked at Lois for a second. “Alone.”

Rae felt her stomach twist around on itself. She hoped he wasn’t going to talk about last night; she didn’t think she could handle the humiliation of being told flat-out what a mistake it was. “Alright,” she said.

She nodded to Lois who quickly went inside the room and shut the door. Rae and Finn then walked a few steps down the hall so they weren’t in front of anyone’s door before he started talking.

“I wanted to apologize for last night.”

A lump formed in Rae’s throat. She didn’t like where this was going.

“I shouldn’t have kissed ya while we were still roommates.”

That…was not quite what she was expecting him to say.

“I could’ve just waited a day, y’know?” He laughed a little.

“What d’you mean?”

“Do you want to, maybe, go out with me some time?”

“Like…?”

“A date? Yeah,” he said with a smile.

“Uhhh…” She wasn’t sure what to say. This conversation did not go the direction she thought it was going to go, so she was caught a little off-guard. “Sure?”

And so it was that Rae found herself hanging out with Finn again at one in the morning, even after she no longer shared a room with him.


End file.
